spoiled by some accident, the idiot continued to strike and
count the hour without the help of it, in the same manner as he had done
when it was entire.

3. Though I dare not vouch for the truth of this story, it is very
certain that custom has a mechanical effect upon the body, at the same
time that it has a very extraordinary influence upon the mind.

4. I shall in this paper consider one very remarkable effect which
custom has upon human nature; and which, if rightly observed, may lead
us into very useful rules of life. What I shall here take notice of in
custom, is its wonderful efficacy in making every thing pleasant to us.

5. A person who is addicted to play or gaming, though he took but little
delight in it at first, by degrees contracts so strong an inclination
towards it, and gives himself up so entirely to it, that it seems the
only end of his being. The love of a retired or busy life will grow upon
a man insensibly, as he is conversant in the one or the other, till he
is utterly unqualified for relishing that to which he has been for some
time disused.

6. Nay, a man may smoke or drink, or take snuff, till he is unable to
pass away his time without it; not to mention how our delight in any
particular study, art, or science, rises and improves in proportion to
the application which we bestow upon it. Thus what was at first an
exercise, becomes at length an entertainment. Our employments are
changed into diversions. The mind grows fond of those actions it is
accustomed to, and is drawn with reluctancy from those paths in which it
has been used to walk.

7. Not only such actions as were at first indifferent to us, but even
such as were painful, will by custom and practice become pleasant.

8. Sir _Francis Bacon_ observes in his natural philosophy, that our
taste is never better pleased than with those things which at first
create a disgust in it. He gives particular instances of claret, coffee,
and other liquors; which the palate seldom approves upon the first
taste: but when it has once got a relish of them, generally retains it
for life. The mind is constituted after the same manner, and after
having habituated itself to any particular exercise or employment, not
only loses its first aversion towards it, but conceives a certain
fondness and affection for it.

9. I have heard one of the greatest genuises this age has produced, who
had been trained up in all the polite studies of antiquity, assure me,
u